In prior-art elevators, lock-down of the elevator car and of the counterweight is arranged with a metallic compensating rope or chain connecting the elevator car and counterweight, which rope or chain passes around a diverting pulley mounted on the bottom of the elevator hoistway. Arranged this way the rope prevents continuation of the movement of the counterweight in a braking situation of the elevator car. The rope delivers this lock-down function and also simultaneously a compensating function of the masses of the hoisting ropes of the elevator, i.e. compensates an imbalance state of the hoisting ropes caused by a change in the positions of the elevator car and counterweight. A problem in this solution has been that acceleration of a rope dimensioned for compensation purposes along with the acceleration of the elevator car consumes a large amount of energy owing to the large mass of the rope. Correspondingly, a problem has been the laborious braking of the elevator car, because deceleration must be achieved, in addition to the elevator car, in the heavy compensating roping at the same time. All in all, the moving masses have been large, which has been reflected in the dimensioning of numerous other parts of the elevator, e.g. in the dimensioning of guide rails and safety gears. Additionally, elevators of a low travel height that do not have compensating roping also exist. In these, a lock-down function can have been completely omitted. On the other hand, it has also been proposed that the function be arranged by including in the counterweight a brake that is activated in a gripping situation.